dfk41 Interesting but not particularly new.
I have no experience of blade grinding for espresso but Moccamaster only recently moved to burr grinders, after previously having a range of blade grinders - two for drip, one for espresso. I did pull a couple of experimental 1:5 espresso shots with the EU drip Moccamaster, they were under but not foul and it didn’t seem practical to continue, compared to simply brewing.
I have 2 blade grinders that I have used for brewed, one being the aforementioned Moccamaster, the other a £20 Swan. Both have a mesh screen to control particle sizes that pass into the grinds bin.
Why don’t I use them regularly? It takes a fair while to grind with the Moccamaster and the collection bin is large & static prone. There’s a lot of real estate above the blades to trap beans, so dose consistency isn’t what you expect compared to a good single dose grinder. There was often a slightly charred taste to brews, not really a deal breaker.
The Swan traps a significant amount of bean particles under the blade that never make it into the collection bin. Again, static means a fair bit of tapping & sweeping to get the grinds out of the collection bin. Had some perfectly good brews from this grinder, but the mesh size limits it to the coarser end of pour over brewing.
Life & workflow is just easier with say my Feldgrind, Ode, or Niche (as well as than some other burr grinders, not just blade).
Consistency of setting might be easier with grinders with a fixed gap, as opposed to just relying on time with the blade grinder used in the video?
I’d take the Swan any day over the £190 CafeSing Orca which he mentions at the end of the video. Grind times are bizarrely long and the ghost burrs make for weirdly silty brews.
Grinders have never historically been advertised, nor sold on the basis of grind quality (apart from dubious claims made by some of the new Chinese manufacturers and also small batch builders elsewhere). The Baratze Sette has the most bizarre grind distribution I have seen, it’s got some stick from people trying to brew with the AP burr (didn’t work for me either), but no one really seems to mention any problems with espresso. I got good cups of espresso from mine when it worked. The extractions were a bit lower than some other grinders, but if you dial any capable grinder in for the best cup it can make, your coffee won’t be awful.
Getting the setting right, with a capable grinder, is the priority. If you have a specific need for certain characteristics, then sure, try to find a grinder that does that thing (good luck wading through the conflicting reports on atributes).
I have posted it before, but here’s America’s Test Kitchen testing grinders for brewed…